A little mouse living on a farm was looking through a crack in the wall one day and saw the farmer and his wife opening a package.
The mouse was intrigued by what food the package may contain. He was aghast to discover that it was a mousetrap. The mouse ran to the farmyard warning everyone “there is a mousetrap in the house, there is a mousetrap in the house.”
The chicken raised his head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell you this trap is a grave concern to you, but it has no consequence to me and I cannot be bothered with it.”
The mouse turned to the pig, “I am so sorry Mr. Mouse, but the trap is no concern of mine either!”
The mouse then turned to the bull, “It sounds like you have a problem Mr. Mouse, but not one that concerns me.”
The mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected that no one would help him or has concern about his dilemma.
He knew he had to face the trap on his own. That night the sound of a trap catching its prey was heard throughout the house. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness she could not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
The snake bit the farmer's wife. The wife caught a bad fever and the farmer knew the best way to treat a fever was with chicken soup. The farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard to get the soup's main ingredient.
The wife got sicker and friends and neighbors came by to take turns sitting with her round the clock. The farmer knew he had to feed them, so he butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get better, in fact she died and so many friends and family came to her funeral that the farmer had to slaughter the bull to feed all of them.
有一天，一只住在农场里的小老鼠透过围墙上的裂缝看到农夫和他的妻子打开了一个包裹。
小老鼠很想知道里面装着什么食物。发现是捕鼠器的时候，他吓了一大跳。小老鼠跑回院子里提醒大家：“屋子里有捕鼠器！屋子里有捕鼠器！”
小鸡抬起头说：“老鼠先生，我跟你说，这夹子对你来说是个严峻的考验，不会对我造成任何伤害，我才懒得管呢。”
老鼠又去找猪，猪却说：“抱歉，老鼠先生，那个夹子和我也没关系！”
老鼠后来又去找牛，牛说：“老鼠先生，听起来你好像摊上麻烦了，但这与我无关。”
老鼠回到了家里，耷拉着脑袋，沮丧极了，怎么就没有一个人愿意帮帮他或是对他遇到的麻烦事儿上心呢？
他很清楚，麻烦还得自己面对。当晚，老鼠夹抓到猎物的声音传到了屋子的每个角落。农夫妻子跑去看到底抓到了什么。四下里漆黑一片，她根本不可能看见老鼠夹夹住的是一条毒蛇的尾巴。
蛇把农夫的妻子咬伤了。妻子开始发高烧，农夫知道退烧最好的办法就是喝鸡汤。农夫拿起斧子，到院子里拿到了做鸡汤需要的主料。
妻子的病越来越重，朋友邻居轮番前来探病，围着她坐了一圈。农夫得给客人做饭，就把猪给宰了。
农夫妻子的病一直没有起色，还是死了。很多亲朋好友来参加葬礼，农夫为了款待客人，把牛也给宰了。
-aghast [əˈɡɑːst] adj. 惊呆的;吓呆的
-prey [preɪ] n. 被捕食的动物
-venomous [ˈvenəməs] adj. (蛇等)分泌毒液的
-hatchet [ˈhætʃɪt] n. 短柄小斧
同乘一条船，利益或许可以独享，但风险也不得不均摊。
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